During a discussion at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center, Catherine Lacey shared how fiction serves as a means to explore personal truths. She explained, “When I try to decide what to reveal or hide, it fails,” emphasizing that personal elements inevitably surface in her writing, or the story won’t come together.<\/p>\n
Lacey’s debut novel, “Nobody Is Ever Missing,” illustrates her tendency to infuse personal experiences into her work. The book’s protagonist loses an adopted sister to suicide, which eerily paralleled Lacey’s own life when her stepsister passed away due to substance use after the novel was completed. Lacey remarked on the subconscious process, noting how personal circumstances seep into her fiction.<\/p>\n
Young writers often struggle with character development, Lacey observed. Now, she recognizes that when her writing resonates emotionally, she’s on the right path. She finds it daunting when fictional voices disclose personal aspects she hadn’t intended to expose.<\/p>\n
Despite this, Lacey sometimes doesn’t realize how much of herself she reveals through her characters until the book’s release is imminent. If she had consciously decided what to include, she claims she would have left out personal elements.<\/p>\n
For Lacey, short stories allow narratives to form naturally. Her first story collection, “Certain American States,” came out in 2018, and a new collection, “My Stalkers,” is expected in 2027. She likened crafting stories to poets writing poems, describing it as an organic process.<\/p>\n
When characters or scenes come together, Lacey works intensely until completion. Her recent piece, “Rate Your Happiness,” published in The New Yorker, developed quickly once the right connections clicked in her mind.<\/p>\n
However, the excitement of finishing a story is fleeting for Lacey. She often worries it might be her last, as she struggles to imagine replicating the same feeling, saying, “It\u2019s the magic that helps me not feel like I have a job.”<\/p>\n